Before your campaign is sent, Direct Mail checks your message, mailing list, and account configuration for issues that might cause a problem with delivery. This help article gives additional information on some of the issues that you might run in to.
If Direct Mail Changes Your From Address
When sending a campaign, you may see a notice from Direct Mail that begins "To ensure delivery, the From Email will be changed…". If you are OK with Direct Mail changing the From Email address, you do not need to take any action. The "From Name" on your message will not be changed, so recipients will still know it's you. Any replies to your campaign will still be sent to your email address.
Why Is This Happening?
Beginning Q1 2024, Google and Yahoo changed their policies to require that incoming email be protected by email authentication. This is part of an effort to protect their users from spam, phishing, and malicious emails. You can learn more about email authentication here.
Because Google and Yahoo are among the largest email mailbox providers in the world, their policies affect everyone. All email service providers, including Direct Mail, now require that their customers enable email authentication if they want to send from their own, branded email address. Even absent the requirement from Google and Yahoo, turning on email authentication is a modern best practice and an important way for you to protect your brand online.
If You Have Your Own Domain (e.g. mybusiness.com)
If you are using your own, branded domain, your best option is to enable email authentication in Direct Mail. This will allow you to use your own domain as the From Email address, without Direct Mail making any changes. If you have questions or would like us to assist you in this process, please contact our support team.
If You Use a Free Email Provider (e.g. gmail.com, outlook.com, etc.)
If you are using a free email provider as your From Email address, you cannot enable email authentication because the domain name doesn't belong to you. However, you can:
- Take no action and allow Direct Mail to change the From Email address, as described above.
- Considering purchasing your own, branded domain name and using that instead (e.g. "john@mybusiness.com")
- If you are using a Gmail or Outlook email address and are sending to a very small list, consider sending your email via Google or Microsoft instead of via our e3 Delivery Service. See "Additional options" below for more detail.
Additional Options
The email authentication requirement applies only to email sent via our e3 Delivery Service. For most customers, e3 Delivery Service is the best option for sending your mail, as it supports fast, hassle-free delivery for large lists, excellent inbox placement, automatic bounce and complaint processing, and more. However, if you are sending to a very small list and don't want to enable email authentication for your domain, you can consider sending via your Google account, Microsoft account, or own SMTP server.
Missing or Broken Unsubscribe Link
All email campaigns should include an unsubscribe link. It is always better to give your recipients an easy way to opt-out, rather than risk them becoming frustrated and reporting your email as spam. In addition, many mailbox providers (like Google, Yahoo, and others) now require that mailing list emails contain an unsubscribe link.
How the Unsubscribe Process Works
The email templates that come built-in to Direct Mail already include an unsubscribe link. However, if you are using the "Plain" template, or if you have imported your own custom design, you will need to add one as described below.
If one of your recipients uses the unsubscribe link (or clicks the unsubscribe button in their email app), their email address is automatically “crossed off" your mailing list (in the Contacts tab) and is excluded from future campaigns. Your campaign report (in the Reports tab) shows a list of recipients that unsubscribed from a particular campaign.
Add New Link
- Navigate to the Messages tab
- Click to place the text cursor where you want the unsubscribe link to be. It should be in the footer.
- Choose Link > Unsubscribe from the content toolbar
An unsubscribe link will be inserted. If you want to change the text of the link so it says something besides "Unsubscribe", you may do so. Just click on the link, then click the Edit Text button. If you change the text, please make sure the purpose of the link is still clear to your subscribers (e.g. "remove me from mailing list" or "stop receiving these updates").
Convert or Fix an Existing Link
If you already have a link in your email that you'd like to convert into an unsubscribe link, here's how:
- Click on your unsubscribe link to edit it
- In the popup window that appears, click on the Link popup menu and choose Unsubscribe
Test the Link
You can test if your unsubscribe link is working properly by previewing your message and clicking on the unsubscribe link. If it is working properly, you will see a message appear letting you know it is set up correctly.
Do Not Disguise or Hide Your Unsubscribe Link
Hiding or disguising your unsubscribe link so that it is difficult to find is not allowed and is grounds for suspension of your Direct Mail account. Your link should be located in the footer of your email, should be in an easy-to-read size and color, and should be labeled clearly and accurately.
Use a Custom Unsubscribe Link or Omit an Unsubscribe Link
Unsubscribe links in form of “please email us to be removed from the list” are no longer allowed. This is due to new requirements from mailbox providers like Google and Yahoo. Please use Direct Mail’s built-in unsubscribe link, instead. If you have a custom unsubscribe process on your website and would like to integrate that with Direct Mail’s unsubscribe link, please take a look at our webhooks documentation or contact our support team for additional options.
Only email campaigns sent via e3 Delivery Service are required to have an unsubscribe link. If you are sending internal communication or one-off emails for which unsubscribe is not necessary, you can send via your own server, instead. The unsubscribe link is not required when sending via your own server.